Nightingale News

10 Biggest New Features In Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt

Whether you are a seasoned Realmwalker or new to the Faewilds, a lot has changed in Nightingale. As you start your journey in this week’s Realms Rebuilt update, here are some of the major new features (plus a few other big updates since our Early Access launch) you can expect to find when you jump in on September 12.

[h3]A Brand New Handcrafted Campaign[/h3][/h3]

The core questline of Nightingale has been completely recreated thanks to the incredible feedback we’ve received from the community. Realmwalkers now embark on a more immersive and substantive quest, as Puck guides players across gravity-torn deserts, corrupted forests, and beyond, on a journey to reignite the ancient Crossway portals. Each of the new Storied Realms has been handcrafted; packed with challenging enemies, ancient discoveries, and all-new puzzles and dungeons. But fear not, proc-gen fans: you can still craft Realm Cards and access Untamed Realms (what we’re now calling procedurally-generated maps), which contain further challenges and precious resources to discover - and all the procedurally-generated maps are all-new in Realms Rebuilt. Let’s not forget, every Realm can be further customized by one of the dozens of Minor Realm Cards activated at a Realmic Transmuter.

[h3]
New Weapons and Spells[/h3]

You can never go wrong with more weapons, and we’ve been steadily adding new armaments to Nightingale for our players to use. Realms Rebuilt features the much-requested Bow and Arrow (both short and long bows, in multiple tiers), the perfect weapon for Realmwalkers looking to silently take down enemies and Fae wildlife. You’ll also be able to wield new spells in the update, including the explosive Immolation spell, and Fionn's Wrath which conjures up giant fish to attack your enemies.

And if you haven’t braved the Realms in a while, we’ve added and updated a whole host of Bound enemies, including the cannon-wielding Bound Breaker, the brutish shield-carrying Bound Aegis, and sharpshooter sniper Bound Marksman.

[h3]
More Boss Battles (and Dungeons)[/h3]

We’ve added a variety of new and unique boss fights that you’ll encounter throughout the campaign in our Realms Rebuilt update. You’ll find them deep in the revamped Sites of Power - all-new dungeons that offer a tougher and more elaborate challenge for even the most seasoned Realmwalker. These deadly adversaries are designed from the ground up with unique abilities and are set within distinctive locations. Want to battle a bear that spews tentacles from its maw? We’ve got you covered.

[h3]
Improved Build Limits and A New Tileset[/h3]

Another highly-requested feature is an expansion of our build limits, and Realms Rebuilt allows players to go bigger and more elaborate with their architectural creations. We recently released a whole blog on the subject so check that for all the details on what to expect. Realm Rebuilt also features the new elegant Regency tileset. So get building and make sure you share your grand designs with us on our Official Discord!

[h3]
More Pets! [/h3]

A dapper dachshund in a top hat is all well and good but what about a fancy feline in a bonnet? Realms Rebuilt allows Realmwalkers to shelter up to 20 pets, and we’ve added several new creatures (yes, including cats and the adorable Eoten Sapling) for you to adopt and take home. Now who’s up for a catnap in their furry friend’s sleeping spot?

[h3]
Overhauled Progression System[/h3]

Feedback has told us that players often found progression in Nightingale confusing, either not understanding what they should be doing next, or how to obtain the next tool or gear upgrades. For Realms Rebuilt, the design team has redesigned the progression system to make it more understandable and to create a better connection between your character’s progression and your journey through the Realms. You’ll find a new ‘Progression’ tab in your guidebook that allows you to unlock new recipes (tools, gear, spells, tilesets, etc) using Essence unlocked throughout the game.

[h3]
Clothing Customization [/h3]

Another community-requested feature coming in Realms Rebuilt is the ability to further customize your clothing. With the new Glamour Station, you’ll be able to change the physical shape of an item to another item of the same type you’ve unlocked - meaning that you can make your high-end gear look like your Sunday Best. We’ve got further clothing customization options coming on the horizon.

[h3]
Streamlined Crafting [/h3]

While players love the depth and versatility of our crafting system, feedback has shown that it can sometimes be confusing - whether it’s how to unlock recipes, or how to place Augmentations to unlock crafting options. We’ve streamlined this system in Realms Rebuilt. Now, Augmentations no longer unlock the ability to craft items. Instead, Augmentations offer bonus stats to crafted items and boost refinement times for workbenches. This change paired with the new progression system makes the joy of crafting much more straightforward without sacrificing the breadth and depth of the system.

[h3]
Set Your Home ANYWHERE[/h3]

Now you can set your Respite Realm (i.e. where you set your home base) in any Realm! Don’t mind us, we’re just laying down roots on one of the floating rocks in Welkin’s Reach.

[h3]
And Loads of Other Things…[/h3]

There is no part of the Nightingale experience that hasn’t been touched by this upgrade, from small balance changes to UI improvements. Highlights include 10 new charms, NPC recruits being able to use Grenades and Throwing Knives, a new Q button consumables radial menu, centre-aligned shelves and decorations, NPCs no longer damaging estates, a new toolbar arrangement, new ranged weapon variants, new rest options including time of day and difficulty adjustments, NPCs having the ability to use consumables, and so much more.

[h3]
Bonus: Other Updates Since Early Access Launch[/h3]

We know a lot of players will either be new to Nightingale when Realms Rebuilt launches, or haven’t played in quite a while. So, as a bonus 11th point, here are a few things we’ve added in recent months:

[h3]Offline Mode:[/h3] Players can now play Nightingale both online and offline when they start their adventure, offering more choices in how to experience the Realms.
[h3]New Tool Abilities:[/h3] Turn your Sickle into a deadly boomerang, parry incoming attacks with your Hunter’s Knife, or unleash a flurry of blows with your Hammer. New tool abilities bring greater variety to combat encounters.
[h3]New Outfits: [/h3]Plenty of new spiffy outfits have been added to Nightingale since launch, meaning you can always look your finest when bludgeoning giant swamp frogs.
[h3]Craft/Build from Storage & Queued Crafting:[/h3] These quality-of-life improvements allow for a more streamlined crafting experience.
[h3]Grappling Hook & More Traversal Options: [/h3]Your Climbing Picks now have a Grappling Hook ability, allowing you to quickly reach previously inaccessible heights. On top of that, fast travel points and other traversal improvements have been added to the game.
[h3]And More…:[/h3] We’ve also made major performance improvements, squashed lots of nasty bugs, added new NPCs to meet, added new quests to explore, introduced a thing called a Pepy’s Box (a transdimensional storage chest), and much more…

We’re still working hard on even more updates; including new biomes, triangular build pieces, and more. Stay tuned to Nightingale on socials to be the first to know when new content drops, and a big thank you to everyone joining us in Early Access as we continue this development journey.

See you in the Realms!
The Nightingale Team

Accessing Legacy Mode

As the Realms Rebuilt update quickly approaches, we’ve had questions from various community members regarding how the legacy version of the game will work.

To clear it up for everyone, here is everything you need to know:

[h2]What is Legacy Mode?[/h2]
Legacy Mode is a way to access and play the pre-Realms Rebuilt version of Nightingale, also known as version 0.3.2, and will be available starting September 12, 2024.

If you want to continue playing your current (pre-Realms Rebuilt) character after the update, you can in Legacy Mode!

As this is meant to be an archived version of the game, it will not get further development such as new features or bug fixes, and only single-player Offline Mode will be available - but you will be able to transfer your Online characters using the instructions below.

[h2]How do I access Legacy Mode?[/h2]
Starting September 12, 2024 after the Realms Rebuilt update is live you can access Legacy Mode by doing the following:

On Steam:

Locate Nightingale in your Steam library
Right-click on Nightingale
Click “Properties”
Click on the “Beta” tab
Beside “Beta Participation” select “nightingale-0.3.2” in the dropdown menu
Allow the game to update
Start the game
Select Offline Mode

On Steam Deck:

Locate Nightingale in your Steam library
Press the Pause button (a button with three stacked horizontal lines on the top right beside “Y”) to open the options menu
Select “Properties”
Select “Beta” tab
Beside “Beta Participation” select “nightingale-0.3.2” in the dropdown menu
Allow the game to update
Start the game
Select Offline Mode

[h2]How will I access my pre-Realms Rebuilt (current version 0.3.2) Online characters in Legacy Mode?[/h2]
As only Offline Mode is available in Legacy Mode, you will need to download your character’s save file from our servers so you can access it in Legacy Mode.

To download your Online character save:

Go to https://auth.playnightingale.com/auth/linking/ and sign into your account
After signing in, you should see all of your current Online characters
If you delete your character, they will not appear for download.
Click on them to download a zip file to an easy to access folder, these files will contain the data for each Realmwalker

To access your characters in Legacy Mode:

Locate the zip file you downloaded above
Right-click and and extract the files to the following folder…
On PC: %localappdata%\nwx\Saved
On Steam Deck: Home/.local/share/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1928980/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/appdata/local/NWX/saved/Offline/Profiles
Launch Nightingale [legacymode], choose Offline Mode, and select your newly imported character

[h2]How will I access my current 0.3.2 version Offline characters in Legacy Mode?[/h2]
As long as you don’t delete your characters before the Realms Rebuilt update, you should be able to launch the Legacy Mode and automatically access your previous Offline characters.

While we have tested this internally with developer builds, this is the first time we’ll be trying this with the live game product, so we recommend backing up your saves to another location as an extra precaution.

[h2]What happens if I don’t backup my Offline character or download my Online character before September 12th?[/h2]
As long as you don’t delete your characters from the game before the update, both Online and Offline character saves will still be available for you to access via Legacy Mode directly (Offline characters) or be available to download from our website (under “Archived”).

[h2]Should I delete my pre-Realms Rebuilt characters before the update if I don’t want them any more?[/h2]
Whether or not you delete your characters is up to you as all your character slots will start empty for the Realms Rebuilt version when it launches regardless. But if you decide to delete the characters, we won’t be able to restore them so make sure you’re okay with it!

[h2]I’m having issues downloading my Online character, what should I do?[/h2]
Please head on over to our customer support platform and send us a ticket with your Steam ID so we can investigate further.

[h2]Where else can I access this information?[/h2]
Instructions on how to access the Legacy Mode and how to backup your Offline characters are also on our customer support portal for ease of access.

—

Whether you want to walk down memory lane with your Estate or just compare the game versions, we’re excited to have the Legacy Mode be available to our community as almost a time capsule of Nightingale’s development as we continue to look towards the future and where it goes from here.

Also, if you'd like to sneak an early peek at the Realms Rebuilt update, we'll be showing off the first hour or so and answering questions in a livestream on YouTube this Wednesday at 11am MT. Mark your calendars and join us then:

Nightingale's upcoming update solves its most pressing problem

With the Nightingale Realms Rebuilt update, developer Inflexion Games is giving its promising but flawed survival game the revamp it deserves. Despite a gorgeous fantasy world and a clever concept, it struggled to maintain a foothold in a year packed with contenders. Among its biggest issues are a lack of clear direction and meaningful upgrades, which are focus points of the new overhaul, but perhaps its Nightingale's most agonizing problem is its restrictive build limits. Now, Inflexion reveals just how it's giving players more freedom to create when Realms Rebuilt lands.

Read the rest of the story...

Developer Update: Realms Rebuilt Deep Dive - It's Almost Here!

Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt is our biggest update yet and the latest Dev Update jumps right into what you can expect - from a new handcrafted campaign to build limit increases, UI improvements, and loads of new pets (and some even wear hats)! Every area of the game has been touched by this update, so join us as we summarize as much as we can without making this video feature-length!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For more information on the Realms Rebuilt update then check out our reveal blogs -
Part One: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

Part Two: https://playnightingale.com/news/nigh...

Nightingale: Realms Rebuilt - Building Q&A

As the Realms Rebuilt update approaches and Realmwalkers ready themselves for their first visit to the Crossways, we thought it would be a good time to jump into some details about how the build system will change in Nightingale. Tackling the tricky questions on the mind of every Faewild builder, Technical Director Jacques Lebrun digs into the numbers and shares insight into the past, present, and future of building in Nightingale.

[h3]Q: How did you envision the design of Nightingale’s building system? [/h3]
JL: When we set out to create a building system for Nightingale, we wanted to give players the right tools and an exciting, versatile canvas to express their creativity. While we didn’t set out to make a game that revolved exclusively around building with zero limits, we also appreciate that any technical constraint can quickly get in the way of that creative freedom and fun that players want to have when crafting their home in Nightingale.

[h3]Q: How does the building system work in Nightingale right now?[/h3]
JL: Nightingale supports two distinct types of structures:

1. Composite structures which snap together with under-the-hood adjacent pieces that are managed as a single entity (these include pieces like foundations, walls, and roofs).

2. Standalone structures are managed as independent entities but can provide more functionality, such as the ability to store items, provide traits to other crafting stations, handle crafting, etc. These types of structures require more overhead to manage, and include objects like storage containers, crafting benches, and augmentations.

In the initial version of Nightingale, we needed to place limits on how many structures could exist in the realm in order to ensure networking between clients and servers remained stable, and the client frame rate remained playable on a minimum spec rig.

[h3]Q: Can you talk about how community feedback informed changes you wanted to make in the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: In the initial release of Nightingale, players found managing three different building limits to be challenging, and sometimes difficult to understand - the three limits themselves were 100 composite structures, 300 pieces for each of those composite structures, and 350 standalone structures. It’s also not clear from the player’s perspective which structures fall into which category, so too much trial and error was required to figure everything out.

In addition to this, players were also frustrated that the building limits for the player were shared with structures that were pre-placed in a realm, which added additional limitations outside of the player's control. This included environmental architecture like statues, ruins, and points-of-interest.

With feedback on the above, we had a pretty clear path forward on what we needed to address to make the experience more accessible, flexible and enjoyable for players.

[h3]Q: Can you go into detail about how the building system changes in Realms Rebuilt?[/h3]
JL: In Realms Rebuilt, we focused our optimization efforts around improving the piece limits of composite structures. For example, an estate building that was previously limited to only have 300 roof/wall/floor pieces can now support up to 1500. This was achieved primarily through low-level optimization of how the structure data is represented.

Additionally, we implemented a new method of spreading networking updates for large structures across multiple server updates, which we hope can allow us to further increase the per structure piece limit in the future.

In order to give players maximum flexibility in terms of how many structures they can build, we changed how we track the structure limits. Instead of tracking composite structures and standalone structures separately, we now count them together but apply a variable weight depending on the performance overhead of a particular structure. This aggregated limit is calculated via Realm Building Points, which goes up to 30,000 (UPDATE: we previously communicated 20,000 but in the days since the blog was written, subsequent optimization work has upped the overall limit). You’ll find some structures like walls and roofs contribute very little to Realm Building Points, but other types like containers and crafting benches will cost more. We also keep track of player-built structures separately from the structures that are pre-placed in the Realm - so structures already in the Realm will no longer count towards the overall build limits.

[h3]Q: What tips would you give players who love building when creating their estate following the Realms Rebuilt update?[/h3]
JL: Okay, here’s a few tips:

1: If you consider yourself an avid builder, we suggest turning on the “Advanced Building Information” option in the Gameplay Settings screen. This will show you how you’re progressing towards the building limit for the Realm, the piece limit for composite structures, and the weighted cost for each individual piece. You’ll know what’s “cheap” and what’s “expensive”.

2: One approach to getting the most out of the building system is to prioritize building out the foundations, walls, roofs, which are very low cost.

3: Be conscious when building crafting benches, containers, decorations, portals, etc. that emit traits.

4: Standalone decorations like chairs and tables still have some moderate cost, but sit somewhere in the middle (no pun intended).

[h3]Q: What can players look forward to with the building system in the future?[/h3]
JL: While we prioritized building large composite structures for Realms Rebuilt, in the future we want to spend some time optimizing the decorations, containers, and workbenches you’ll want to fill your estate with. We look forward to being able to have an assortment of low-cost decorations to give players the freedom to furnish their estates to their hearts’ desire.

Thanks to Jacques for accommodating our questions. If there’s anything else you want to know about building in Realms Rebuilt, or you have any other questions on your mind, then why not join our Developer Livestream on September 11th at 11am MST/6pm BST. We’ll be previewing the Realms Rebuilt update and answering community questions. Join our Discord here to participate.

Until next time, fare thee well, traveler.‍